School dropout who duped 4,500 victims held for credit card fraud

A school dropout from Maharashtra may just have pulled off one of the most complex and successful banking frauds of the year - until he was nabbed by the Delhi Police earlier this week.

Raju Tevar, 32, duped around 4,500 credit card customers of ICICI Bank of Rs 2 crore over about a year. At the time of his arrest, Tevar was found to be in possession of credit card details of around 30,000 ICICI customers, who have given the police officers the full import of his operations.

The actual measure of the fraud can be ascertained after the recovery of his laptop. The Delhi Police arrested Tevar in Mumbai earlier this week and was brought to Delhi on transit remand. After being produced before a court, he was sent to eight days police custody.

Nabbed: Raju Tevar is accused of an
online fraud worth Rs 2 crore and has been remanded in police custody for eight days

The Delhi Police claim that Tevar stole most of the data from his acquaintance, Zakir, who is on the run. Zakir has probably stolen the data from the bank with the help of an accomplice.

"It seems a close aide of Zakir works in the bank, who has helped him steal the data from the bank's database," a senior investigating officer said.

Bank baffled

Though the bank officials seem baffled at their own end, it cannot be ruled out that there is mole in the bank as well. Investigating sleuths have contacted bank officials, who claim that they have also received complaints and have started an internal inquiry in the matter.

"They are just wondering how all this continued for more than a year without their knowledge. But we are sure that there is involvement of some employee of ICICI Bank," an officer said.

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The police had acted on the complaint of one Abhay Srivastava, whose credit card details were obtained by Tevar in April on pretext of blocking the card. He had told Abhay that someone had made an online purchase from the card, police said. He claimed that he is an ICICI Bank employee and assured the victim that the card would be blocked. But just after getting the card details, he made an electricity bill payment worth Rs 44,911 to Maharashtra District Electricity Board, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) SBS Tyagi said.

"We have recovered several laptops and mobile phones from him. The analysis of one of the laptops confirmed that it contained credit card data of 30,000 card holders. The data is being analysed for further investigation," Tyagi added.

After months of painstaking search, the police finally arrested Tevar after identifying him on Facebook. Officials said they had a name traced from the mobile call details, but no face to attach it to.

"After three months of investigation, Tevar was traced in Mumbai. He used a SIM card for Internet transactions only. His photograph was taken from Facebook profile on instance of one of his customers in Mumbai and so he was finally pinned down," the officer said.

Mastermind behind the internet banking scam

Shady past: Tevar was registered in four criminal cases back in Maharashtra

The man who pulled off one of the biggest internet banking scams of the year is a school dropout.

Raju Tevar, 32, came from a village, Ambernath, in Maharashtra. His father was a factory worker and mother a housewife. Tevar was to join the same ordnance factory his father worked in after dropping out from school, but the quotidian lifestyle didn't suit him.

He got involved in quarrels, was registered for four criminal cases, one of which led to the murder of the bodyguard of a local politician. After being released on bail, Tevar had repeated trysts with the police.

Later he got in touch with Zakir, who allegedly taught him to use the laptop and the art of internet banking fraud. He then started to work by himself and masterminded the net banking fraud and duped credit card holders for one and a half years.

Owing to his lifestyle and the fugitive that he had become, he would change houses every few months. He also used to spend Rs 1-2 lakh in bars every night.